[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/happy-feet-movie.gif]][[caption-width-right:300: "I Just Wanted A Movie About Tap-dancing Penguins!!!"]]

''Happy Feet'' is a [[AllCGICartoon CGI]] film from 2006 directed by George Miller. Winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2007.

A male emperor penguin named Mumble cannot sing like all others of his colony, but he can tap dance. (Because his father Memphis dropped him as an egg, as he admits in an anguished public confession.) Separated from his colony, Mumble meets the Adelie Amigos, who later help him on a quest to get the fish back from "[[HumansAreCthulhu aliens]]" after he was thrown out of the Emperor Penguin colony by the elders.

''Happy Feet'' subverts several of the tropes common to the genre (like RobinWilliams). Some fans find it to be in the same fashion as ''WatershipDown'', as it tells its story entirely from the animals' point of view among other things.

On the other hand, some viewers have criticized the film's use of [[SerkisFolk motion-capture]], particularly during the dance sequences. Others have expressed dismay at the film's perceived {{Family Unfriendly Aesop}}s.

A sequel was released on November 18th, 2011 (it currently does not have its own article). It centers on Mumble's son Erik, who is going through an identity crisis similar to the one his father had, and their attempt to save the colony from a giant iceberg that has blocked their way to the ocean. A subplot follows the adventures of two krill, Will and Bill, who stray from their swarm and head off to find their destiny. An official trailer (showcasing the same type of ParentalBonus songs as its predecessor) [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYq5QkNPKw can be seen here]].----!!This film provides examples of:* [[ThreeDMovie 3D Movie]]: Averted; the film was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally announced to also be released in IMAX 3D]], but it was later dropped, as it would have used up a lot of the budget. There are a few scenes where it's noticeable that it was originally to be in 3D, however.** Played straight with the second film, most likely due to the revive of the format.* ActionGirl: Boadicea, Ms. Viola's daughter. She's a cute, little Emperor Penguin chick... who can pull off LeParkour.* AdultsAreUseless: Averted with Mumble in the sequel, who continues to be the bold, intuitive, and caring penguin he was in the first movie; the few times he loses his cool, it's justified by exhaustion, hunger, and stress from [[AngerBornOfWorry having nearly lost his son]] [[AdultFear while his mate is trapped and dying]]. He solves most of the movie's problems by himself with his signature innovative determination, and only nearly fails with the elephant seals because he simply has no more energy. While they're trapped for most of the movie, Gloria still continues to play a large role as a community leader and inspirational "speaker" alongside Miss Viola and Seymour.* AdultFear: For a horrible minute in the sequel, it looks like two adorable seal pups are going to lose their father when he falls into the crevice and all they can do is hear their father tell that he is going to die. Fortunately, Mumble manages to rescue him, to wich he is rewarded the seal's services.** Mumble's father's worries are genuine that ''he'' was responsible for Mumble's inability to sing because he allowed the egg to freeze a little, causing some sort of brain damage or autism (the equivalent of dropping a newborn baby on its head.) Even worse, Mumble's egg was slightly late in hatching -- there's a moment or two when Memphis is clearly thinking he's responsible for the death of his and Norma Jean's child.* AgentMulder: Subverted. Mumble only believes in aliens (humans) outside the ice, nobody believes him until he gets proof (even then, some ''still'' don't believe him), and he's right. Played somewhat straighter with the Boss Skua.** Lovelace pretends to disbelieve him, but he also knows they exist.* AllOfTheOtherReindeer** Pleasantly averted in the sequel; while Erik clearly has crippling social anxiety that prevents him from relaxing enough to discover his heartsong, his relationship with his loving and supportive parents is healthy despite Mumble's difficulty with communicating. He also has close friends in the form of Atticus and Bodicca, who never leave his side and are always ready to distract, comfort, or defend him as necessary. ** What's more, unlike Mumble, Erik doesn't seem to experience any societal backlash for his quiet ways; the other penguin chicks willingly part around him to let him stand quietly in the background and enjoy watching them perform, rather than thinking he's weird or broken.* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese version uses [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v5-KQNC7fSw#! "Hoshi wo Mezashite"]] by NEWS as the theme song. One of the singers voiced Mumble in the dub.* ArtShift: Most of the humans are live-action. The one group that isn't is the group tracking Mumble back to the others.* AscendedExtra: Seymour.* AscendedToCarnivorism: Will the krill wants to move up the food chain and eat instead of being eaten for a change.* AstronomicZoom: Twice.* AustralianMovies: Directed by one of the larger directors in the country. The director of ''Film/MadMax'', in fact.* BadassAdorable: In the sequel, Bo goes all the way to Adélie Land ''by herself'' to get help for the trapped Emperor Penguins.** Erik standing his ground against ''humongous'' Elephant Seals.* BearsAreBadNews: Polar bears appear briefly in the sequel in Sven's backstory, where they try to catch him.* BeYourself: One of the movie's {{Aesop}}s is that Mumble makes all the difference in the world by [[CaptainObvious being himself.]]* BigDamnHeroes: Done several times in the sequel. Sven leads all the penguins who follow him to where the Emperor Penguins are trapped, spooking the skuas. Later, the "aliens" come to help build a path to help the penguins get out. And finally, Mumble and Eric manage to convince Bryan to bring the elephant seals over to the iceberg to break it down. All while singing "Under Pressure", by the way.* BigEater: Seymour and his son, Atticus.* BrickJoke: Mrs. Astrakhan tells Mumble to be "spontan-you-us!" with a Russian accent. Every time he says it afterwards, he pronounces it the same way.* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Taking on the "aliens" consuming all the fish is only going to end this way. [[spoiler:When Mumble finds a factory ship, he swims out to confront the aliens and clings on the rising net, but is easily dislodged, and the ship leaves without acknowledging him. He swims on to find the source - the narrator says he swam beyond all hope of return and became a legend. Eventually, he washes up on a distant shore to be recovered and put in a zoo. Finally face to face with "the aliens", he tries to communicates and, of course, fails. "After three days, he lost his voice. After three months, they said he had lost his mind." Then things pick up again.]]* CarnivoreConfusion: The penguins, skuas, and humans in the film all eat fish. It's okay for the penguins to do so, but the skuas are shown as thieving bullies, and the humans are explicitly told that they shouldn't ''over''fish - the penguins' declining catch is a major plot point). The skuas also try to eat Mumble as a chick, but he manages to distract them and escape. The whales are portrayed as scar-covered, possibly unintelligent monsters that, unlike the other animals, never speak "penquin", the elephant seals are passed off as "vegetarians" ([[UnreliableNarrator though only according to Ramón]]) and they act rather thuggish and intimidating, and the leopard seal is basically the Antarctic equivalent of an evil dragon. All in all, the predators are basically portrayed as the penguins would view them, rather than how humans would.** To add to the muddle, the sequel featured a krill who was tired of being eaten and wanted to turn the tables on the predators.* ChildhoodBrainDamage: Mumble's egg being dropped by his father is the main reason he's so odd among the other penguins.* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Mumble and Gloria are close from childhood; Gloria saw Mumble come out of his egg, and defended him when his classmates mocked his inability to sing. Eventually they become an item as adults.* ChildrenRaiseYou: In the sequel, all of Bryan's most noble moments come at the prompting of his two adorable children.** "We won't think less of you, daddy!" * ComicallyMissingThePoint--> '''Carmen:''' You and me? Fat chance.--> '''Ramon:''' ''(gasp)'' I've got a chance! And it's ''fat!''--> ----> '''Carmen:''' How did I not see? You are beautiful!--> '''Ramon:''' Only on the outside.* CommonEyeColors: Mumble is the only one with blue eyes, besides the elders, who have blue, green, and hazel. The normal population has amber/brown.** CartoonyEyes: Mumble's icy blue eyes is actually a reference to his voice actor, Elijah Wood. (But see Uncanny Valley.)* ContinuityNod: Mumble mentions in the sequel how he was an outcast and everyone though he was weird, which was a major point in the original.* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse example in which one of the Adélie penguins believes elephant seals are vegetarians. It isn't ever established that said belief was inaccurate, though, which could potentially give less informed viewers the wrong idea.* CrowdSong: ''Two'''s climax with "Under Pressure".** "Bridge of Light," ** "Boogie Wonderland" in the first film.* CulturePolice: The Elders, particularly over dancing.* DanceLine: At the end.* DancePartyEnding: Expected, seeing that the movie is about a dancing penguin.* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: If It weren't for dancing, the entire colony of penguins would've starved to death.* DemotedToExtra: All of the Amigos except Ramon in the sequel, as well as Mumble's parents. Noah's still there, making it improbable that they passed away. (They're actually the penguins that tell Noah that there is no way out from the Doomberg.)* {{Determinator}}: Nothing will stop Mumble from dancing, dammit. Also, his pursuit of the aliens. Keep in mind, he ends up in ''Florida'', which means Mumble ''crossed the equator''.-->'''Lovelace:''' ''(narrating)'' Enraged by their indifference, he followed them long after they had gone from his sight. He swam further than any of us had before, past all hope of return. Swept up by the currents, he was carried endlessly, across vast oceans, to worlds unknown.* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Multiple instances for Mumble in the sequel.* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Just replace the word "penguin" with "normal" every time someone tells Mumble he's not being, or acting like one. The entire first film portrays him like a person with autism. * DreadfulMusician: Mumble-->'''Ramón''': ''(after hearing Mumble singing)'' Yeah, I heard an animal once do that, but then they rolled him over and he was dead. * EarnYourHappyEnding: YMMV depending on how you perceive said trope, Mumble goes through a lot before his story is done.* EasyEvangelism: [[spoiler:Mumble is returned to the colony by biologists, who follow him with a tracking device. Their studies of the penguins dancing makes people care about them more; a frantic montage of political activity leads to international fishing fleets withdrawing from Antarctic waters.]]* EskimosArentReal: In ''Happy Feet Two'', Will the Krill believes "black holes" (whales) are myths to keep people in the swarm. * EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Well, they certainly didn't make this movie because they thought everything was better with Elephant Seals.* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The seal and the whale scenes are often cited as just plain terrifying. And they are.* FantasticRacism: The penguin elders call the Adélie penguins "filthy vermin."** CharacterDevelopment: Noah, in the sequel, remarks about the solidarity of all the penguin nations coming together.* FollowTheLeader: While not a criticism of the film itself, as it was in production since 1997, the release of ''Film/MarchOfThePenguins'' wasn't at all an inconvenience.* {{Foreshadowing}}: Notice how all the penguins hatch out of their eggs with their beaks first, except Mumble, who's first bodyparts we see are his feet. And dancing.* FreezeFrameBonus: In the sequel, after the Krill escape the whales attack, if you pause when the whales are attacking the rest of the Krill swarm (as seen by Bill and Will), the shape of the swarm with the holes caused by the whales is that of a skull or a ghost face, call it what you will.* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The other skuas in the background start mimicking the Boss Skua ''perfectly'' while he tells Mumble his story.* FunnyForeigner: Sven.* GeniusBruiser: Bryan prefers to simply shove any obstacles out of his way, but he later protests Mumble's ice-breaking plan by talking of "The impact force of compact ice, under pressure..."* GreenAesop: A rare example of an environmental message being very prominent and yet nowhere near the major point of the film - the human-caused depletion of the Antarctic fish is mostly a device to drive the plot. ** The sequel doesn't even mention global warming, but it's very obviously to blame for the big problem caused by the broken-off iceberg. There are a lot of dripping icicles and pools of water around, as well.* GreekChorus: Ramón and his friends often do this, such as narrating Mumbles efforts to get Gloria to leave, and at one point providing Mumble's singing voice.* GroinAttack: Baby Mumble pulls this on Memphis.-->'''Memphis:''' Watch the beak, watch the beak, watch the beak, the--->''(GroinAttack)''-->'''Memphis:''' The beak.* HotForTeacher: Briefly, Seymour - although it's his last appearance, so just how brief is never mentioned. Later, it's revealed that they both have two separate chicks (Bo is Ms. Viola's and Attacus is Seymour's), so they did not have their songs become love.* HumansAreCthulhu: The aliens are, of course, humanity. It's a very long time (at least three-quarters of the way through the movie) before any humans appear, and before that the penguins see only their strange artefacts (garbage) and huge structures (an abandoned Antarctic base, a factory fishing ship), which are, to them, as incomprehensible and unknowable as the Jupiter Monolith in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.* InkSuitActor: Mumble has his actor's blue eyes, and Gloria looks as much like Brittany Murphy as it's possible for a penguin to.* {{Irony}}: Mumble's a dreadful singer, but a terrific dancer. In the sequel, [[spoiler:dancing's become almost as normal as singing between the penguins', however Mumble's son Erik can't seem to get the hang of it. Towards the end he's then revealed to have a magnificent voice, or more spesifically, an ''opera'' voice.]]* JukeboxMusical: A lot of the music is oldies songs.* LastOfHisKind: Sven. He even mentions winning a dance contest in his homeland with some other puffins, making it a bit of FridgeHorror.* LeParkour: [[BadassAdorable Boadicea]] in the sequel.* LivingLegend:-->'''Lovelace:''' I'm gonna be tellin' your story, Mumble Happy Feet! Long after you dead and gone!* LotusEaterMachine: The zoo to penguins. [[GenreSavvy Mumble doesn't buy it]]* LoudGulp: Noah gulps when he sees a helicopter for the first time. * MamaBear: Despite her calm, loving demeanor, Norma Jean showed flashes of this. She was the first and only emperor penguin, in their extremely conformist and conservative society, to try to oppose the Elders, verbally lashing out at them (which was shocking enough to the colony) when they forced her son Mumble into exile. She also expressed great disdain for them during the graduation ceremony, for Mumble had not been permitted to graduate. * MeaningfulName: Several.** "Mumble" can't sing, and has a name that denotes trouble speaking.*** Original materials such as storybooks and press materials reveal that his name is "Mambo", but baby Gloria called him "Mumble" and it stuck.** "Memphis" is famous for Elvis, who Memphis' singing style mirrors.** Noah is trying to save the penguins, just as "Noah" saved the humans in genesis.** [[invoked]] Gloria's heartsong is *Boogie* Wonderland, of course she'd be attracted to someone who can dance. [[FridgeBrilliance You'll notice she can't say the key word - "DANCE!!!" - her entire life until Mumble practically forces it out of her.]]** Erik's talent turns out to be [[spoiler:opera...just like another famous [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Erik]]]]. Also, Mumble's mother is named "Norma Jean," which was MarilynMonroe's birth name.* MistakenForAfterlife: [[spoiler: An inversion of the trope's usual form - when Mumble wakes up in the zoo enclosure, the other penguins tell him he's now in heaven, but he doesn't agree. (It's a environment tailored to their comfort, safe from predators and with a guaranteed food supply - from their point of view, it couldn't be better.)]]* MoodWhiplash: Happy dancing, happy dancing, banishment! A hard journey across the ice to find RobinWilliams, so wacky fun again. Then it gets serious again, and so on.* MotionCapture: Used for the dancing scenes with a team of dancers headed by Savion Glover.* {{Narrator}}: [[spoiler: it's revealed to be Lovelace.]]* NeverTrustATrailer: Watch the trailers and there's no sign of the (often heavy-handed) environmental message in the film, just happy dancing. This was actually one of director George Miller's big points of content, after the film was released. He has a rant about it on the Scene/Unseen podcast, where he compares the studio advertising machines to ubiquitous soda bottling companies, always pushing everything down to the norm.* NoCartoonFish: See Carnivore Confusion, above.* NonMammalMammaries: The female penguins don't have breasts in the mammalian sense, but they do have feminine shading on their chests.* NoSocialSkills: Mumble has a slightly awkward sense of humor and doesn't always appear to grok social nuances. * NotTheFallThatKillsYou: The ice ramp in the sequel and Bryan falling into the ice crevice.* OhCrap: -->'''Memphis:''' ... I think you better dance now.* OhMyGods: The penguins' god is "the great Guin". In Happy Feet 2, Noah says "Mother of Guin".* OverprotectiveDad: Mumble gets this in the sequel. Justified in that they are in Antarctica, baby penguins wouldn't be able to maintain their body heat for very long nor can they feed themselves (which is remarked upon with Ramon), and most of the predators Mumble faced in the original movie (the Leopard Seal and Killer Whales), he faced as an adult and could have easily gotten killed.* PapaWolf: Mumble again in the sequel.* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "One in a Krillion".* PerpetualMolt: Subverted. Mumble never finishes his molting. And he's never shown shedding feathers, even near the climax. The creator said Mumble was designed this way so you could tell him apart from all the other penguins.* PluckyComicRelief: The Adelie penguins provide nearly all of the comic fodder in a movie about social exclusion and environmental aesops.* ResetButton: Refreshingly, this is averted in the sequel. The penguins have ''not'' inexplicably forgotten Mumble saving their entire species. He's clearly a respected member of the community, and there's a noticeable increase in the dance moves used throughout the tribe. While his singing hasn't gotten any better, it's obvious that the tribe is more affectionately exasperated by it now than anything else. What's more, Mumble's contributions appear to have changed how emperor penguins react to 'disabled' chicks; Erik hasn't found a heartsong at all, but is met for the most part with quiet (if sad) acceptance and left alone, rather than treated as a pariah.* {{Retcon}}: At the end of the first film, Mumble's feathers have almost completely developed, up to covering his chest and leaving only his head and part of his back still covered in down. In the sequel however, his down is back to covering half of his body.* RevisedEnding: An early cut of the film involved a subplot regarding actual extraterrestrial aliens, whose presence was made gradually more and more known throughout. The aliens were planning to siphon off the planet's resources gradually, placing the humans in the same plight as the penguins. At the end, thanks to Mumbles, their hand is stayed, and instead {{first contact}} is made. This was chopped out during the last year of production, and has yet to see the light of day in a finished form. There is proof in the form of [[http://www.woodland-mattepainting.com/matte_painting_portfolio/content/David_Woodland_mattepaint_55_large.html concept art]], and this dropped plot helps explain the outer space motif that remains in the film. The film would've been somewhat longer, by extension. **This is further confirmed by the release of an early, undated draft of the screenplay, which includes the above mentioned ending, as well as an even darker tone - confirming that, among other things, the film was originally and unequivocally aimed at much narrower age-bracket, rather than the all-embracing tone of the finished film. The characters all curse like sailors, and the famine subplot is even further examined, along with the penguin society and religion, various character name changes and a much more eclectic soundtrack, featuring The Who, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and later-era Beatles, in place of what would become John Powell's orchestral soundtrack. You can find it [[http://www.http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Happy-Feet.html here.]] * RickRoll: In the sequel.* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: There's a baby penguin on the DVD case. Need we say any more? The sequel also has the baby seal twins.** Erik and Bo.* RogerRabbitEffect: Reversed, as it's human actors superimposed in the CG film. You know it's good when it's hard to tell.* SanitySlippage: Mumble at the Florida aquarium. The Village Voice stated that it was perfectly realized envisioning of penguin insanity.* ScarsAreForever: Mumble's bitten tail remains with him forever. * ShooTheDog: Mumble does this to Gloria when she insists on following him to find the aliens. Ramón and company don't help by singing, "Baby Please Don't Go" afterward.* ShoutOut: ** Mumble's delirious hallucinations call him "[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey Dave]]".** The scene in which the penguins dance for humans is a direct reference to ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind''. The humans are even standing atop a hill that resembles Devil's Tower, while the penguins use dance to communicate like the humans communicated with aliens with music. The track on the soundtrack album is called "Communication".* ShoutoutMusic: Tons of popular songs make short cameos throughout the film. * ShownTheirWork: The film actually depicts several behaviors of Antarctic animals quite accurately, such as the way male Emperor penguins spend the winter huddling together for warmth while incubating their eggs, the mating rituals of Adélie penguins and the habit of killer whales to play with their food.* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: Quite far on the TalkingAnimal side.* StalkingIsLove: Rather uncomfortably played straight with Ramon and Carmen in the sequel. They've never even had a ''conversation''.* TheSongRemainsTheSame: Most dubs, except for the Portuguese one.* {{Spexico}}: With Penguins no less. The Adélie group with Ramon have Spanish/Mexican accents, and the [[IncrediblyLamePun chicks]] they try to impress have Colombian accents.* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: The females all have pink spots on their beaks instead of orange like the males', their white undersides are hourglass-shaped while the males' are straighter, and they have more pronounced chests than the males, with the yellow markings on top of their chests in V-shapes rather than on their necks. But a male penguin sporting a pink beak can be seen when Mumble is catching up with the newly-graduated young penguins. No one in the colony mentions this so it likely was just a detail mistake, or to show that RealMenWearPink. * TheReveal: Erik's (Mumble's son) talent is [[spoiler:opera.]]* ThisIsGonnaSuck: -->'''Rinaldo:''' They're making us appetizers!-->'''Ramón:''' They're appe-teasing us! Ha, ha, ha! ''({{beat}})'' We're gonna die. * [[ThoseTwoGuys Those Two Krill]]: Will and Bill.* TranslationConvention: And some FridgeBrilliance in one. Emperor Penguins tell their mates in colonies by their vocalizations, which humans can't readily distinguish differences in but the penguins can. How to translate these subtle vocal variations into human terms? Have them each sing a different song!** It becomes a PlotPoint, because all the humans hear when Mumble tries to speak to them is squawking. ''Dancing'' is a ''visual'' medium, and the humans realize something is wrong when pegnuins begin to ''dance'' like humans (and are led to believe that humans did it to them somehow.)* WhatWereYouThinking: Gloria asks a version of this after she discovers that Mumble singing to her at the mating season is really him lip-syncing to Ramon's singing. Possibly doubles as a stronger WhatTheHellHero because Mumble was effectively lying about his ''heartsong''.-->'''Gloria:''' Mumble, what could you possibly be thinking?-->'''Mumble:''' I...I don't know what else to do. * VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Mumble ultimately gets the girl.